1.

1 THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD How do we go about trying to understand the vastness and complexity of
nature? For most scientists, studies of the natural world involve the complementary processes of
observation and experimentation. Observation is the act of viewing the world around us.
Experimentation is a disciplined and controlled way of asking and answering questions about the world
in an unbiased manner.

Observation allows us to draw tentative explanations called hypotheses.

Observations allow us to ask focused questions about nature. Let’s say you observe a hummingbird like
the one pictured in Fig. 1.1 hovering near a red flower, occasionally dipping its long beak into the
bloom. What motivates this behavior? Is the bird feeding on some substance within the flower? Is it
drawn to the flower by its vivid color? What benefit, if any, does the flower derive from this busy bird?
Observations such as these, and the questions they raise, allow us to propose tentative explanations, or
hypotheses. We might, for example, hypothesize that the hummingbird is carrying pollen from one
flower to the next, facilitating reproduction in the plant. Or we might hypothesize that nectar produced
deep within the flower provides nutrition for the hummingbird—that the hummingbird’s actions reflect
the need to take in food. Both hypotheses provide a reasonable explanation of the behavior we
observed, but they may or may not be correct. To find out, we have to test them.

Charles Darwin’s classic book, On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, beautifully illustrates how we
can piece together individual observations to construct a working hypothesis. In this book, Darwin
discussed a wide range of observations, from pigeon breeding to fossils and from embryology to the
unusual animals and plants found on islands. Darwin noted the success of animal breeders in selecting
specific individuals for reproduction and thereby generating new breeds for agriculture or show. He
appreciated that selective breeding is successful only if specific features of the animals can be passed
from one generation to the next by inheritance. Reading economic treatises by the English clergyman
Thomas Malthus, he understood that limiting environmental resources could select among the variety
of different individuals in populations in much the way that breeders select among cows or pigeons.
Gathering together all these seemingly disparate pieces of information, Darwin argued that life has
evolved over time by means of natural selection. Since its formulation, Darwin’s initial hypothesis has
been tested by experiments, many thousands of

FIG. 1.1 A hummingbird visiting a flower. This simple observation leads to questions: Why do
hummingbirds pay so much attention to flowers? Why do they hover near red flowers? Source: Charles
J. Smith.

them. Our knowledge of many biological phenomena, ranging from biodiversity to the way the human
brain is wired, depends on direct observation followed by careful inferences that lead to models of how
things work. A hypothesis makes predictions that can be tested by observation and experiments.

Not just any idea qualifies as a hypothesis. Two features set hypotheses apart from other ways of
attacking problems. First, a good hypothesis makes predictions about observations not yet made or
experiments not yet run. Second, because hypotheses make predictions, we can test them. That is, we
can devise an experiment to see whether the predictions made by the hypothesis actually occur, or we
can go into the field to try to make further observations predicted by the hypothesis. A hypothesis,
then, is a statement about nature that can be tested by experiments or by new observations.
Hypotheses are testable because, even as they suggest an explanation for observations made
previously, they make predictions about observations yet to be made.

Once we have a hypothesis, we can test it to see if its predictions are accurate. Returning to the
hummingbird and flower, we can test the hypothesis that the bird is transporting pollen from one
flower to the next, enabling the plant to reproduce. Observation provides one type of test: If we catch
and examine the bird just after it visits a flower, do we find pollen stuck to its beak or feathers? If so,
our hypothesis survives the test. Note, however, that we haven’t proved the case. Pollen might be
stuck on the bird for a different reason—perhaps it provides food for the hummingbird. However, if
the birds didn’t carry pollen from flower to flower, we would reject the hypothesis that they facilitate
pollination. In other words, a single observation or experiment can lead us to reject a hypothesis, or it
can support the hypothesis, but it cannot prove that a hypothesis is correct. To move forward, then, we
might make a second set of observations. Does pollen that adheres to the hummingbird rub off when
the bird visits a second flower of the same species? If so, we have stronger support for our hypothesis.
We might also use observations to test a more general hypothesis about birds and flowers. Does red
color generally attract birds and so facilitate pollination in a wide range of flowers? To answer this
question, we might catalog the pollination of many red flowers and ask whether they are pollinated
mainly by birds. Or we might go the opposite direction and catalog the flowers visited by many different
birds— are they more likely to be red than chance alone might predict? Finally, we can test the
hypothesis that the birds visit the flowers primarily to obtain food, spreading pollen as a side effect of
their feeding behavior. We can measure the amount of nectar in the flower before and after the bird
visits and calculate how much energy has been consumed by the bird during its visit. Continued
observations over the course of the day will tell us whether the birds gain the nutrition they need by
drinking nectar, and whether the birds have other sources of food.

In addition to observations, in many cases we can design experiments to test hypotheses. One of the
most powerful types of experiment is called a controlled experiment. In a controlled experiment, the
researcher sets up several groups to be tested, keeping the conditions and setup as similar as possible
from one group to the next. Then, the researcher deliberately introduces something different, known
as a variable, into one group that he or she hypothesizes might have some sort of an effect. This is
called the test group. In another group, the researcher does

not introduce this variable. This is a control group, and the expectation is that no effect will occur in this
group. Controlled experiments are extremely powerful. By changing just one variable at a time, the
researcher is able to determine if that variable is important. If many variables were changed at once, it
would be difficult, if not impossible, to draw conclusions from the experiment because the researcher
would not be able to figure out which variable caused the outcome. The control group plays a key role
as well. Having a group in which no change is expected ensures that the experiment works as it is
supposed to and provides a baseline against which to compare the results of the test groups.
For example, we might test the hypothesis that hummingbirds facilitate pollination by doing a
controlled experiment. In this case, we could set up groups of red flowers that are all similar to one
another. For one group, we could surround the flowers with a fine mesh that allows small insects access
to the plant but keeps hummingbirds away. For another group, we would not use a mesh. The variable,
then, is the presence of a mesh; the test group is the flowers with the mesh; and the control group is
the flowers without the mesh since the variable was not introduced in this group. Will the flowers be
pollinated? If only the group without the mesh is pollinated, this result lends support to our initial
hypothesis. In this case, the hypothesis becomes less tentative and more certain. If both groups are
pollinated, our hypothesis is not supported, in which case we may discard it for another explanation or
change it to account for the new information.